Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne
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Kenny "Blues Boss" Wayne

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2014 | INDIE | AFM

Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada | INDIE | AFM
Established on Jan, 2014
Band Blues R&B

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"Wayne makes you feel like dancin’"

Teresa MALLAM/Free Press Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne puts dancing
digits to the keyboard at the Treasure Cove Show Lounge Friday night.
Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne sure knows how to put on a good show. Wow. More than that, the Vancouver-based boogie woogie piano player singer songwriter knows how to get music fans up on their feet dancing.
Friday night at the Treasure Cove Show Lounge, the Blues Boss was his usual flamboyant self in a fushia (he corrected me when I referred to it as red) dinner jacket and gold colored lame shirt.
From old tunes to new songs, the artist delighted the audience with solid piano playing (he’s known for his legendary pounding of the 88s) a brief history of the blues and his own career anecdotes.
Influenced by blues artists Fats Domino and Amos Milburn, Wayne took the crowd on a musical journey to New Orleans with a soulful Going Down South and kicked things up a bit with Joogie to the Boogie. My favourite song of the night was Blackberry Wine, a bluesy original tune off his 2006 Juno award winning CD (Best Blues Album.) Wayne followed that up with a slowly simmering version of the great blues classic Blueberry Hill.
The blues artist born in Washington, raised in New Orleans, Los Angeles & San Francisco and now living in Kelowna, BC Canada, has a big fan base in Prince George and he makes our city one of his regular stops every year. Last year, he was here with The Twisters for a gig arranged by Blues Underground Network.
With his musical roots planted firmly in New Orleans Jazz and Blues, music critics have called Wayne the true “missing link” between past and modern day blues piano players. An evening with Kenny Wayne shows why. He’s a class act.
Rave reviews and prestigious awards aside (he’s won numerous Maple Blues Awards and Juno nominations,) Wayne plays for people not praise and prizes. He has fun with the crowd and his sense of humour comes through with stories like the one about his wife waiting at the alter while he first played a wedding tribute on the piano before joining here. His serious side shows with tributes to hurricane-torn New Orleans.
A word about the local Rae King Blues Band who warmed up the audience for Kenny Wayne (with great vocals by Mark and Brenda Roland) and stayed on stage to play back-up. Even though they played together for the first time Friday night, the blues band sounded as if they were tuned into Wayne’s every musical move – and if you’ve ever watched Kenny Wayne’s hands flying across the ivories, as if by magic, you know keeping pace with the Blues Boss ain’t easy.
Terry Rollier
Director - Blues Underground
Prince George BC
www.bluesnorth.com - By Teresa Mallam - Prince George Free Press - January 30, 2008


Discography

Rollin' with the Blues Boss - Stony Plain 2014

An Old Rock On A Roll - Stony Plain 2011

Can't Stop Now - Electro-Fi 2008
Let it Loose - Electro-Fi 2006 (Juno Winner)
88th & Jump Street - Electro-Fi 2002 (Juno Nominee)
Blues Carry Me Home - Isabel 2002 (recorded in Paris, France)
Blues Boss Boogie - Real Blues 1998 (Juno nominee)
Alive & Loose - Blue Roots - 1995 (Juno Nominee)

Photos

Bio

BOSS OF THE BLUES - GENTLEMAN OF THE BOOGIE WOOGIE

A Stony Plain artist biography

KENNY ‘BLUES BOSS’ WAYNE:
A VETERAN PIANIST’S BRAND
NEW TAKE ON BOOGIE AND BLUES

Super fast bio version:
Born Spokane, Washington. Raised New Orleans, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Based: Vancouver, British Columbia. Home: On the road, somewhere…

Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne — resplendent in a brightly colored, French custom-tailored stage suit — hammers out rockin’ boogie woogie, deeply felt blues, and puts a fresh coat of paint on good old-fashioned roots rock and roll.
Now with a brand new album, An Old Rock on a Roll on the Stony Plain label, he’s on the road again.
He’s been a traveling musician almost all his life, playing in show bands and cover bands in his youth, seeing the world from Texas to Hawaii and from Peoria to Paris.
Rediscovering his own blues roots long ago sent his career into overdrive, thanks to his fresh approach to old music, the drive and roaring good-time attitude of his live performances, and his smartly original self-penned songs.
As one writer put it: ““When a piano player’s got the three most important things — the playing, the voice, and the look – he becomes the whole package. An artist you just have to see and hear.”
Deeply influenced by Fats Domino and Johnnie Johnson, Kenny Wayne’s other heroes include keyboard rockers whose names are beginning to fade into history — men such as Amos Milburn and Bill Doggett, both long overdue for rediscovery by the new generations of blues fans.
The new album has been produced by Duke Robillard, who has overseen sessions for Stony Plain by Jimmy Witherspoon, Jay McShann, Rosco Gordon, Long John Baldry, Herb Ellis, Ronnie Earl and many others. The co-founder of the band Roomful of Blues and a former member of The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Robillard has more than a dozen of his own recordings on Stony Plain.
Robillard’s take on Wayne? “He’s a monster pianist, a soulful singer, and he captures of essence of old school blues and boogie while sounding totally fresh and contemporary,” he says.

For further information, interview requests, high resolution pictures, please contact:

Management:

Rick Bates (rick@batesmeyer.com) www.batesmeyer.com

In Canada:
Richard Flohil/Beth Ward, Richard Flohil & Associates
PH: (416) 351-1323
E-Mail: rflohil@sympatico.ca

In the United States:
Mark Pucci, Mark Pucci Media
PH: (770) 804-9555
E-Mail: mpmedia@bellsouth.net

International:

Dixie Frog Records

Band Members